In an over-the-top sports town in which each new day inspires a new question to which fans want answers right now, nothing tops the draft picks question. Worthy contenders include: “Why didn’t the Celtics make a big move at the trade deadline?” and “Why do the Red Sox talk about Hanley Ramirez as though he’s going to be the next George Scott?”

But the draft picks question flat-out boggles the mind.

We’ve heard the usual-suspect answers, such as how Kraft already showed his cards at the owners meetings last year in San Francisco, or that he’d become an outcast if he dared to side against his fellow NFL lodge brothers.

But if history has taught us anything, it’s that change — big, important change — only happens when somebody challenges conventional practice. The groundwork for the 13th Amendment began decades earlier with the preachings of pie-in-the-sky abolitionists. If it’s true that the NFL has become as ingrained in all our lives as we all keep saying, then maybe its commissioner should be less a despot and more a community player.

And I’m not talking about public-service spots and flyovers.

We should be alarmed about the concussion issue. We should be concerned, mightily, about the seemingly endless stories about young men (in all sports) who are accused of domestic violence. We should ask questions about the fairness of cities losing their NFL team because somebody in another city came up with a plan for a bigger, better stadium.

Are you, as fans, satisfied with Roger Goodell’s answers to these questions?

In the aftermath of Deflategate, Goodell suspended quarterback Tom Brady for four games, fined the Patriots $1 million and took away their first-round pick in this year’s draft and a fourth-round pick next year.

I’ve always believed there was some goofing around with the footballs. I’ve always believed, too, that Brady, or Kraft, or coach Bill Belichick, or maybe radio color analyst Scott Zolak — somebody — should have been fined $50,000. And that should have been the end of it.

But all this? Even though the courts vacated — for now — the four-game Brady suspension, the rest of Goodell’s gavel-slamming remains on the books.

Nobody cares much about the $1 million fine, the idea being that Kraft can take care of that with spare change from underneath the seat cushions. But it’s the draft picks that have everyone around here riled up.

While it’s true that every fan in every other NFL port would be outraged if the Patriots had their first-round draft pick returned, the larger issue, for all fans, is this: Given the way things have played out in recent years, do you feel you have any say in how things are run?

As we all know, Robert Kraft helped save pro football in New England. But he didn’t do it alone. Bill Parcells and that quarterback Drew Bledsoe brought victories. And with victories came relevance — in the form of sold-out games.

The fans who have sold out Foxboro Stadium and Gillette Stadium for more than two decades are now asking Robert Kraft to get back in the game and fight for the draft picks. Look, Pats fans can be crazy … and ridiculously defensive. But they happen to be right about this one, and Kraft should be listening to them.